Author: Dan Seeger

Books, Comics2 Comments

Great Moments in Literature

Dan Seeger

“She hadn’t caught me, obviously enough, at a very erotic moment in my life. I had never been much of a pickup artist–a few ghastly encounters in my twenties had seen to that–and the alternative prospect of a euphoric romance not only exhausted me but, in fact, struck me as impossible. This wasn’t because of any fidelity to my absent wife or some aversion to sex, which, I like to think, grabs me as much as the next man. No, it was simply that I was uninterested in making, as I saw it, a Xerox of some old emotional state. … Continue reading Great Moments in Literature

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Bunuel, Elliott, Gast, Hill, Weide

Dan Seeger

Easy Virtue (Stephan Elliott, 2008). Based on a play by Noel Coward, Easy Virtue has all the requisite pieces to help the Priscilla, Queen of the Desert director get his artistic sensibilities back on track after the disastrously bad thriller Eye of the Beholder. The story about an English gent bringing his headstrong new American wife home to meet his snobbish, disapproving family is abundant with basic, effective dramatic conflict, and the source material guarantees that the screenplay will be filled with admirable wit. The finished product is sadly in a perpetual state of overexertion, everything ratcheted up to a … Continue reading Bunuel, Elliott, Gast, Hill, Weide

Film2 Comments

Top Fifty Films of the 90s — Number Twenty-Seven

Dan Seeger

  #27 — Primary Colors (Mike Nichols, 1998) Politics is a circus. It’s a bizarre mix of showmanship and exaggerated danger with every effort made to prop up the most artificial spectacles as if they’re the realest things in the world. It’s populated by people with outsized personalities projecting ingratiating joy, but there always seems to be a lurking hint of menace about them. It is controlled lunacy. About the only place the comparison breaks down is when P.T. Barnum’s famous evaluation of the susceptibility of the audience is invoked. A sucker born every minute? In politics, that seems a drastic … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the 90s — Number Twenty-Seven

Music9 Comments

One for Friday: Huxton Creepers, “Rack My Brains”

Dan Seeger

I don’t remember how I first discovered Huxton Creepers. I hadn’t heard of the Australian band before reaching the college radio station in the fall of 1988, and, as I recall, they weren’t an especially hyped outfit on the left side of the dial either. Their records came and went without anyone paying them much attention. One of their album covers may have been pinned to the studio wall, which was wallpapered with album flats at that time. Maybe I just found their record because my standing default was to go the H section when I didn’t know what to … Continue reading One for Friday: Huxton Creepers, “Rack My Brains”

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Allen, Cuaron, Jarmusch, Kazan, Kaufman

Dan Seeger

Stranger Than Paradise (Jim Jarmusch, 1984). A New Yorker’s Hungarian cousin comes to visit, staying with him for an extended period, despite his initial protests. He grows to like her, eventually recruiting his buddy to join him in paying her a visit when she later moves to Cleveland. That trip evolves and the three of them wind up traveling to Florida together. And that’s about it. Jarmusch’s signature aesthetic was forged here as he often seems to be trying to see how little action he can put into any given sequence. Sometimes that can be wearying, but here it works … Continue reading Allen, Cuaron, Jarmusch, Kazan, Kaufman